x, 294 pages : 25 cm

The author is a famously candid commentator on his own work, and in the interviews specially recorded for this book he reflects on how his Midwestern childhood and early career as a cartoonist and animator prepared him to make powerful, idiosyncratic films that are unlike anything else in contemporary cinema

Filmography: pages 267-287

Includes bibliographical references and index

Introduction: Poems Unlimited -- 1. Minnesota, Magic and the Movies -- 2. Alice and the assembly line; Mad at the Algonquin and filming Joyce; army life, escape to Europe and disillusion in Disneyland -- 3. Late Swinging London; animation as stream of consciousness; a programme called Monty Python; and the Holy Grail on a shoestring -- 4. Jabberwocky and the joy of real actors; in the footsteps of Zeffirelli for Life of Brian -- 5. Handmade Time Bandits and unlikely heroes; The Crimson Permanent Assurance comes aboard -- 6. 1984 1/2 becomes Brazil, with the aid of ducts and De Niro; and what happened next -- 7. Bernini, Dore and light filtering through the pines of Cinecitta while Munchausen hovers between life and death -- 8. Knights errant and distressed damsels in Manhattan: The Fisher King -- 9. The Defective Detective in development hell; A Tale of Two Cities untold; Twelve Monkeys unleashed; early cinema as The Last Machine and the art of Spellbound -- 10. An unexpected rendezvous with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; and still The Defective Detective

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